Armored vehicles were deployed to cordon off the mosque, which used to host Bahrain’s largest Shiite congregation.

Concrete barricades and police checkpoints were also used to restrict people’s freedom of movement throughout Diraz.

A small number of Shiite worshipers trickled into the mosque to perform individual prayers.

Diraz is home to some 30,000 people, who have been subjected to an unprecedented lockdown by Manama’s security forces since the denaturalization of Bahrain’s highest religious authority Sheikh Isa Qassim in 2016.